WOW! Thanks so much for giving us the info on that book~I am buying one today! You did not bore me at all~I was so intrigued with all the information you gave us I wanted to read more so off I go to the bookstore!!! Thanks again!

Dance as though no one is watching you, love as though you have never been hurt, sing as though no one can hear you and live as though heaven is on earth.

As a child she ate sugar whenever she could: Pixie sticks, cotton candy, Sweet Tarts. Her family is Argentinian and her mom would make her "huevos con azucar" - raw egg yolks w/sugar or "dulce de leche" - carmelized milk sugar. She was a picky eater. Underweight she went to Argentina one summer before college and she came back 20 lbs heavier. She felt anxious and buzzed all the time. Even though she took a lot of PE classes, the weight did not come off.

(And this is for WALKSFAR): She started reading Adele Davis and took chem and biology classes. At the time she got to thinking that Coke was bad, 7-Up was okay; white sugar bad, honey was okay. Later she learned all sugar was the same. She loved milk and drank it all day long until she was diagnosed with lactose intolerance - the inability to digest milk sugar. She read cereal boxes to find sugarless ones and ate shredded wheat (an old fave of mine too!) etc.

She's now going to the health food store and eating "healthier" foods, such as granola w/honey, but her asthma, IBS, acne and facial hair worsened. They tested her for ulcerative colitis/Crohn's, had up/lower intestinal x-rays. She had a biopsy looking for sprue. All tests were negative (she must not know of the spectrum?) - anyway the doctors were thinking it was all in her head.

Finally, in her last year of college an endocrinologist told her to eat bland foods. She struggled to stay away from sugar. She craved what made her sick. Over the years she gradually changed her eating habits, but she takes us through her health challenges:

1. Delayed Puberty

If a girl eats too much sugar, it results in high insulin which stimulates excess androgen production, which in turn blocks estrogen. Lack of estrogen delays puberty. Also, "w/out estrogen to balance out the androgens that are developed during puberty, you can develop acne."

2. Acne

..from clogged and inflammed oil glands. When androgen increases, oil glands increase and the more likely they'll become clogged.

Puberty and perimenopause are the two times androgen activity increases. It used to be these times when women would get acne, men'd complain around puberty only. Now both men and women complain. The reason is women and men are eating low-fat diets that are high in carbohydrates while also consuming stimulants (caffeine, ADHD drugs). "High carb consumption stimulates insulin production, and when insulin rises, androgens are increased beyond "normal". Stimulants exacerbate this while increasing insulin and adrenaline. It's true that sugar and chocolate make you break out!"

3. Asthma

She says sugar made her wheeze. Eating too many carbs causes insulin levels to rise too high, which leads to excess formation of hormones known as eicosanoids. One of eicosanoids' main functions is the relaxing or contracting of various smooth-muscle groups. Eicosanoids are also involved w/immune-system responses. When insulin is high, it disrupts eicosanoid balance so bronchial smooth muscles contract and immune responses are exaggerated: asthma.

There is a medical term, known as the Respiratory Quotient (RQ), that represents the amount of energy expended by the lungs to rid the body of carbon dioxide generated by the metabolism of foods. Your body has to work harder if you consume a lot of carbs.

4. IBS and Gluten Sensitivity (and this is where I'd appreciate your opinions):

She had IBS, the catch-all term for idiopathic bowel conditions.

"To be absorbed, carbs need to be digested in the sm. intestine into simple sugars. If you overeat carbs, some of them will escape being digested into simple sugars and will continue on into the lg intestine. Once carbs enter the lg intestine, the bacteria will break down the sugar into gas, which causes distention and pain. To make you feel even worse, water is pulled from the bloodstream into the colon to respond to the lg sugar load that should not be there, resulting in loose stool.

Overconsuming carbs can also cause gluten sensitivity, which I experienced. Gluten is found in whole-grain products and is used as a filler in many other products. Overconsuming gluten has caused an epidemic of gluten intolerance and hypersensitivity known as nontropical sprue. When you overeat gluten, your intestinal lining swells. This swelling prevents nutrients from being properly absorbed into your system, which leads to extreme B-vitamin deficiencies. Non-tropical sprue has symptoms ranging from low energy, joint aches and pains, anemia, weight loss, edema and skin disorders, to diarrhea, abdominal discomfort and distenstion. Reducing your consumption of carbs containing gluten and increasing your consumption of foods containing B vitamins usually solves the problem."

5. Low estrogen = carb craving.

A lot of women crave sugar before their TOM when their estrogen is lowest. When she treated patients with hormone replacement they didn't crave the sugar. Why? Estrogen is needed for serotonin production.

All stimulants, including stress, block estrogen action, which lowers serotonin levels, which leads to stimulant consumption, which leads to lower serotonin levels and so on. Not every patients needs hormone replacement.

Since the low-fat movement gained popularity, many food manufacturers make up food with HFCS - the worst form of sugar. Many nutritional studies show that fructose ages your cells faster than sucrose (!?). Alcohol is another way to get sugar.

Sugar addiction, whether due to various forms of refined sugar, man-made carbs or alcohol, is an eating disorder. She cured hers with balanced nutrition.

Anyway, there's more. But your thoughts and experiences with gluten would be interesting. Personally, I didn't "like" meat growing up, so I called myself a vegetarian ... and I followed the USDA food pyramid (my endocrinologist's PA shook her head when I told her). I mean, I didn't go out of my way to have a full 11 servings of grains daily ... but I was conscientious enough to get the most fiber I could ...so, on some level I wonder if I pushed myself into a CD diagnosis? By the age of 17 (when I tried that 10 day liquid protein diet and by-proxy went gf and felt great and didn't know why)? I don't think so, but ... what if?

btw, am I boring you? I hope not!~ (I know when I first was dx, I was reading a lot and came across video interview with Dr. Schwarzbein and was intrigued. Other things took me away. I also get emails from www.womentowomen.com and so does my neighbor whose Dd has PCOS .. they order vitamins from them and I think they got this book for free with their order. That's how she fell into my lap again and I wanted to share.

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